ronald reagan agreed to tax increases when it hit 4%. george w. bush did when it was 3% of gdp. but today's republican party is organized around the proposition that no matter the circumstances, there must never be a tax increase of any kind. the simpson-bowles proposal calls for $1 for every $3 of spending cut bus every republican presidential candidate during the primaries including romney pledge thad he or she would not accept $10 of spending cuts if that meant $1 of tax increases. so romney could present a serious economic plan with numbers that add up and then he would face a revolt within his own party. so his solution has been to be utterly vague about how to deal with the actually deficit. when pressed for details, he said, the devil's in the details. he's right. were he to get specific he would be committing ideological blasphemy. instead he talks about freedom and capitalism. the same pattern emerges on immigration. he says he wanted to solve the immigration issue permanently but he can't actually propose anything practical because that would talk about legalizing in s